'Black Panther' stars on importance of African culture in Marvel film

Live TV

Chadwick Boseman, who plays T‘Challa, the titular hero and king of fictional African nation Wakanda, led his co-stars including Lupita Nyong‘o, Daniel Kaluuya, Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett, on the purple carpet on Monday.

The stars of “Black Panther” dressed in their finest African-inspired royal attire and spoke about the importance of representing a black superhero story on screen at the premiere of the new film from Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Entertainment.

Chadwick Boseman, who plays T‘Challa, the titular hero and king of fictional African nation Wakanda, led his co-stars including Lupita Nyong‘o, Daniel Kaluuya, Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett, on the purple carpet on Monday.“Something like Marvel has a way of really affecting popular culture, and to have that popular culture informed with things that are of African origin and people knowing they are of African origin ... is powerful,” Nyong‘o, who plays warrior Nakia, told Reuters.

“Hopefully it changes the general idea of what being an African is. Too often times we see Africa as a place that is wanting and here it’s a place that you want to go,” she said.